Valley of the Suns
Fansided

Top-10 things to watch over the last ten games

By Adam Maynes

PHOENIX, AZ - MARCH 2: Devin Booker #1 of the Phoenix Suns handles the ball against the Oklahoma City Thunder on March 2, 2018 at Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix, Arizona. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Michael Gonzales/NBAE via Getty Images)
PHOENIX, AZ - MARCH 2: Devin Booker #1 of the Phoenix Suns handles the ball against the Oklahoma City Thunder on March 2, 2018 at Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix, Arizona. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Michael Gonzales/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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BOSTON – NOVEMBER 17: Before game time, Suns general manager Ryan McDonough, center, chats with Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca, left, and Sean Grande, the voice of the Celtics. Pagliuca shares video of his son’s Saturday Duke game against Fairfield. The Boston Celtics host the Phoenix Suns, at the TD Garden, on Monday, November 17, 2014. (Photo by Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
BOSTON – NOVEMBER 17: Before game time, Suns general manager Ryan McDonough, center, chats with Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca, left, and Sean Grande, the voice of the Celtics. Pagliuca shares video of his son’s Saturday Duke game against Fairfield. The Boston Celtics host the Phoenix Suns, at the TD Garden, on Monday, November 17, 2014. (Photo by Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty Images) /

Will the Suns be able to maintain their strategic health-based tanking?

The Suns are undoubtedly tanking. Ryan McDonough, the medical staff, and the coaching staff have been working to strategically rest players at the opportune time to best lose every game the rest of the way. Hopefully they want DeAndre Ayton in the absolute worst way.

What to watch for is if the Suns win again before their actual lottery odds are fully locked in?

With the fourth hardest remaining schedule, Phoenix has a legitimate shot at losing every game the rest of the season. Devin Booker and T.J. Warren, the team’s top-two scorers, have fortuitously been injured as of late, and keeping either one or the two of them out of the lineup makes the Suns a much easier target for opponents – just ask the Golden States Warriors sans Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Kevin Durant.

Phoenix has had to sit Booker and Warren even Josh Jackson against the worst teams in the league, with Tyson Chandler having been shut down late for the second season in a row.

While the Suns are publicly claiming that these injuries are all legitimate (and I hate to claim with any modicum of authority that they are lying on any level), this has the scent of strategic tanking, althouh fans shouldn’t mind it one bit.

There is a slim but hopeful chance that the Memphis Grizzlies win at least two more games the rest of the way, the other most obvious tanking offender at the back end of the lottery. If so – and Phoenix loses throughout – then they could actually lock up the worst record a little early and look to win two or three of their final games to end the season on a high note.

But until then, look for several key players to continue to see staggered absences due to injury, and the strategic tanking to continue.

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